


Flesh and the Force

by WingletBlackbird



Series: Jedi History, Organisation, and Culture [6]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Cybernetics, Gen, Jedi, Meta, Meta Essay, Nonfiction, The Force, cyborg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-09
Updated: 2019-02-09
Packaged: 2019-10-25 06:16:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17719691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WingletBlackbird/pseuds/WingletBlackbird
Summary: Whether or not violent injury, and cybernetic replacements will truly impact your ability to touch the Force as has been suggested.





	Flesh and the Force

We’re told in the EU that the Jedi think it’s a terrible and tragic thing to have amputations that result in the need for cybernetic replacements. Not because you just lost a limb, but because you now have less organic material to channel the Force through. Hence, you are weaker and diminished. There seems to be a severe anti-cyborg streak to the Jedi. This is hinted at in canon when Obi-Wan says, “He’s more machine now than man: Twisted and evil.” (Being more machine, due to severe injury, makes you EVIL?!)

Allow me to say that this is complete and utter bullsh*t…Well, mostly. I’m sure that there are some limitations that are going to come with cybernetic replacements, but it’s not going to be from diminished ability to touch the Force. Frankly, if that were true, the largest Jedi would be the most powerful, and Yoda would be very weak. We know this isn’t the case. The mass of organic matter that you have should not be confused with the concentration of midichlorians in your body. It is the high concentration that determines the strength of your ability in the Force. Hence, even if you lost all of your limbs, it wouldn’t matter, the Force is a spiritual entity, and you can still call on it like you did before. You still possess the same closeness to it that you did before. You still have the same concentration of midichlorians in your blood. Anakin still uses his right hand to do Force tricks. Getting it amputated, and using a cybernetic limb, did not prevent him from being able to channel the Force as he has done before. The argument that it would seems rather contrary to the evidence.

ETA: It has been observed that Darth Vader lost a lot of his potential when he was put in the suit. However, I don't believe this is because he lost his ability to touch the Force, but rather that he was obliged to change how he channeled it. If there is truth in the Jedi observation that a violent injury can diminish your strength I think it would be because of this concern.  In the case of Darth Vader, he needs to use the Force to breath, to keep his balance  as those prostheses were deliberately shoddy, to increase his stamina wearing a VERY heavy and cumbersome suit, etc. If he had never been injured, or more importantly if his lungs hadn’t been damaged and he had decent prostheses, he would have experienced little to no change. However, as he did have breathing difficulties, a broken body, a heavy suit, and poor limbs, he was forced to channel most of his power just into staying upright and breathing. Hence, his ability was diminished as he could not channel all of his power into the fight…or into anything really. Additionally, since the replacement limbs were metal, he could hardly use Force lightening, or, as demonstrated in RoTJ, take very much of it. Again though, his inability was due to the nature of the disabilities, rather than diminished ability to touch the Force. If Force potential counted on how much organic flesh you had, as I indicated above, Yoda would be very weak indeed. It’s midichlorian concentration that’s important. I think that this is an important distinction.


End file.
